Memory arrays are an important component in SOCs. The state of the art application processors and MCU chips have several computing units. Each computing unit has a dedicated memory array. Therefore, the memory arrays occupy a large percentage of area in SOCs. Also, the memory arrays on the SOCs are responsible for around 10% of total power consumption.
A memory array is associated with peripheral logic components. The peripheral logic components receive a peripheral supply voltage. The peripheral supply voltage is provided to a voltage regulator to generate a regulated supply voltage. The regulated supply voltage is provided to a unity gain amplifier to generate a memory supply voltage which is provided to the memory array. The memory supply voltage follows the regulated supply voltage and is adjusted based on the characteristic of the memory array.
Thus, the memory supply voltage has a same profile as the regulated supply voltage. To achieve a best power versus a best performance figure, the regulated supply voltage should be able to scale-up when more performance is desired and scale-down when power is to be reduced. The scaling is required to be performed dynamically with a scaling of the peripheral supply voltage. Thus, a voltage regulator is required that can seamlessly provide such a regulated supply voltage to memory arrays through the unity gain amplifier.